Brakkton Booker
Brakkton Booker is a National Desk reporter based in Washington, DC.
He covers a wide range of topics including issues related to federal social safety net programs and news around the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
His reporting takes him across the country covering natural disasters, like hurricanes and flooding, as well as tracking trends in regional politics and in state governments, particularly on issues of race.
Following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Booker's reporting broadened to include a focus on young activists pushing for changes to federal and state gun laws, including the March For Our Lives rally and national school walkouts.
Prior to joining NPR's national desk, Booker spent five years as a producer/reporter for NPR's political unit. He spent most to the 2016 presidential campaign cycle covering the contest for the GOP nomination and was the lead producer from the Trump campaign headquarters on election night. Booker served in a similar capacity from the Louisville campaign headquarters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he produced pieces and filed dispatches from the Republican and Democratic National conventions, as well as from President Obama's reelection site in Chicago.
In the summer of 2014, Booker took a break from politics to report on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Booker started his career as a show producer working on nearly all of NPR's magazine programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and former news and talk show Tell Me More, where he produced the program's signature Barbershop segment.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University and was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow. When he's not on the road, Booker enjoys discovering new brands of whiskey and working on his golf game.
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said elections would be delayed from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17. After 102 days without community spread, a new COVID-19 cluster in Auckland has grown to 58 cases. -
In the police video, Officer Tou Thao seems to get increasingly agitated as the crowd becomes more vocal, with onlookers repeatedly asking him why Floyd's vital signs aren't being checked. -
"I absolutely expect there to be charges based on the evidence," attorney Benjamin Crump says after Taylor's family meets with Louisville's mayor and the Kentucky attorney general. -
Officials said one of golf's premier tournaments will be played without fans. The Masters was postponed until November because of the pandemic. -
Willis defeated six-term Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, and her former boss, in Tuesday's runoff. Howard has been dogged by scandal, including his handling of the Rayshard Brooks case. -
The Big Ten, which includes Michigan and Ohio State, and the Pac-12, which includes Stanford and USC, put off playing college sports this fall as confirmed virus cases in the U.S. rise. -
Carmen Best, the city's first Black police chief, will leave after a tumultuous few months in Seattle, where protesters against racial injustice took over several blocks. -
North Paulding High School made headlines when images of crowded halls were posted on social media. The school is switching to virtual learning for at least two days while facilities are disinfected. -
"He, as much as anyone in our history, brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals," former President Barack Obama said of the longtime congressman and civil rights legend. -
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the federal agents sent to Portland acted as "an occupying force & brought violence." Brown says federal officers will leave starting Thursday.
